What is Facebook Doing to My Link Previews?

Facebook link previews imageAs part of Facebook’s effort to stop the spread of misinformation and false news on their platform, they are removing the ability for Pages to edit how a link appears on Facebook.

According to Facebook.com, by removing the ability to alter link metadata (i.e. headline, description, and image) from link sharing on Facebook, they are eliminating a channel that has been abused to post false news.

The ability to customize the image, title, or description in link previews is no longer available for most Pages and apps. Those not yet affected will likely be subject to the change by mid-September.

Facebook introduced a way for “publishers” to continue editing how their own links appear on Facebook. It appears that the term “publisher” applies to pages categorized as media and very few pages are considered “publishers”.

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Facebook states, “We know media Pages use this feature daily to customize and post high volumes of links they own. Pages eligible for this tool will see a new section in their Page’s Publishing Tools called Link Ownership.”

If you think your page is considered a “publisher”, you will see a new section in your Page’s Publishing Tools called “Link Ownership.”. It appears that your Page qualifies as a publisher, you should indicate so by September 12th.

Facebook also states they are removing the ability from all Pages to create organic video link posts due to integrity risks and abuse of the format.

They ran a test to posts with a video attachment link, along with an optional call-to-action. They state that posts from this test did not meet News Feed Integrity Standards, so video link posts will gradually be removed from all Pages.

However, Video Link Page Posts can still be created through Ads Manager, Power Editor, and Ads API for sponsored posts.

The GrowthZone team will continue to provide updates on this situation as they become available.

Source: facebook.com

See More: Social Media Tips for Busy Association Professionals

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